The other day I received an email from a friend, a musician-poet-artist with a great sense of humor. He told me that soon he’ll be driving across the country, from San Francisco to Baltimore, and he planned on getting a camouflaged cap with “I Love Jesus” on it for when he goes through what he called “militia-land.” His joke pointed at something basic to the current social landscape. Today, we must consider the notion of “camps” when dealing men, women and non-binary entities.
Henry David Thoreau said something to the effect that a person should avoid any enterprise that required them changing their clothes because that implied hypocrisy. Until this modern social wave blows over we must deal with the intransient positions that surround us. Wearing message-carrying-caps in different places might work. As you passed through different states, cities and neighborhoods, you could doff a cap and quickly identify that you stand with the locals. If “I Love Jesus” doesn’t work, try “I Love Allah,” “I Love Yahweh,” “I Love Kali,” “I Love Cthulhu,” “I Love Satan” “I Love Atheism,” and so on. The contemporary traveler should also carry “I Love Vaccines,” “I Love Masks,” “I Love Intolerance,” “I Love Climate Change Fanatics,” and “I Love Lucy.”
A single cap with LED lights programmed by sensors to change its message in relation to location is smart. The country could be divided into “influence zones” where local community preferences were sent out. Your LED cap would then pick up these signals and change automatically. Since the general social rule these days is "keep 'em confused," The Cap System for Social Identification® might help overcome embarrassing problems. Imagine if you put on “I Love Genetically Processed Foods” at a Vegan House party!
The only problem with this strategy is it suggests “I Love Big Brother” or at least “I Tolerate Big Brother” which may be worse than loving him for it speaks of apathy, giving in, accepting the madness, all of which steps towards self-erasure. Why is it that I don't feel the “system” is real? That even though it could kill me through some law I don't even know about, like allowing certain dangerous pesticides used to grow food or forcing me to get some injection, why can’t I accept it as real? This isn't real life. Real life doesn't have governments and mass behavior control. I’m pretty certain about that. Real life is people interacting with each other individually. There's a Power Party making all the rules and I wasn't invited.
